The present invention relates to a photosensitive material exposure apparatus by which special image processing such as filtering can be performed easily when the contents of an original image on a photographic film or the like are exposed onto a photosensitive material such as photographic printing paper.
Silver halide photosensitive films are used for photographic films such as color negative films, color reversal films, monochrome negative films, monochrome reversal films, etc. After being used for photographing, these films are brought into photograph shops to be subjected to developing and printing processes. In the past, the films brought into photograph shops were further brought into a large-scale laboratory and subjected to developing and printing processes in the large-scale laboratory. In recent years, however, a small-scale developing system called a "mini-laboratory" has been developed so that developing and printing processes can be carried out in each photograph shop.
By this small-scale developing system, a series of processes of developing a color negative film which is presented by a customer can be carried out in a short time in a photograph shop. These processes include exposing color paper to light from the color negative film and developing the color paper to obtain a print image.
In most cases, the developing of an exposed film and the printing thereof to photographic printing paper are carried out concurrently. Following this first printing, a second printing is often performed. When a second printing is done, the print worker must not only ensure that the specific frame and number of prints ordered by the customer are correct, but he may also have to perform additional processing such as trimming, zooming, soft focusing, lettering, etc. It is important for the print worker to work exactly in accordance with the customer's order.
Conventionally, to generate a soft-focused picture, photographing is performed with a soft focusing filter mounted to a camera. By use of such special effect filters, photographic negative films having various effects are generated, so that effective photographic prints can be obtained from the negative films.
It is, however, difficult to obtain effective photographic prints, unless the photographer mounts such filters intentionally at the time of photographing. Accordingly, it is very difficult to generate special effect prints from negative films, and it requires a great deal of labor and time to finish prints in accordance with the customer's wishes.
As described above, in the case where effective photographic prints are to be obtained, it is required to set processing conditions through filters or the like at the stage of photographing. Accordingly, it is difficult to obtain such a photographic print by applying processing such as soft focusing to an image after selecting the image while observing a negative film or a photographic print. For example, when photographic printing paper is to be subjected to soft focusing and printing, it is required to perform a first exposure for a predetermined time without a soft focusing filter disposed on an optical axis between the original image and the photographic printing paper, and then to perform a second exposure for a predetermined time with a soft focusing filter disposed on the optical axis. Because this work is ordinarily done in a dark room or under a safety lamp, it is difficult to mount/demount the soft focusing filter.
In the case where a different processing filter is used it may also be necessary to identify the kind of filter in a dark room or under a safety lamp. Accordingly, the printing work becomes more troublesome. Although a plurality of filters may be provided in the form of a turret so that the respective filters can be disposed on an optical axis, the apparatus is large-sized and complicated in structure.
When soft-focusing projection exposure is performed by using a conventional filter, color turbidness often occurs on the whole of a photograph because of abnormal scattering of light. For example, in the case of a portrait photograph where a woman is the main subject, the flesh color is often blurred to a not-intended color because of scattering of light in the vicinity thereof.
These phenomena make it difficult to generate soft-focused photographs, though scattering of light in the case of projection exposure from a positive film is reversed compared with scattering of light in the case of projection exposure from a negative film.
An object of the present invention is to solve the aforementioned problems by providing a photosensitive material exposure apparatus which not only enables an image such as a photographic print having an effect such as soft focusing to be produced very easily, but also generates a high-quality photographic print.